twilight2000fandomcom-20200213-history
Twilight 2000 2nd Edition/1996
In the spring, the newly reinforced Soviet forces launch an offensive against the Chinese ** After some good initial gains, but the offensive stalls with significant casualties ** Various NATO nations, especially the US, had sent equipment over the winter. The new equipment makes the previously-successful massed tank assaults suicidal * By the middle of the year, most Soviet category B divisions have been mobilised and sent to the Far East, and almost 25% of the category A divisions from Europe are also committed ** Many of the Category C divisions are upgraded to category B or mobilised. Mobilisation-only divisions begin training ** The machine gun artillery divisions created for territorial defence in the 1990's start being converted back to motor rifle divisions * Poland plans to send an extra division to the Far East, but seven ethnic German soldiers announce that they will resist a foreign transfer ** Ethnic Germans demonstrate in support of the soldiers. The demonstrations are put down violently by riot police ** Germany protests and moves several divisions closer to the border * In June, a few senior officers of the German army, and at least one cabinet minister, open secret talks with several German ethnic organisations in Poland ** Another round of demonstrations breaks out, and are violently suppressed. Small groups of demonstrators fight back with military small arms ** Polish army units move in. Pomerania and Silesia appear to be in a state of civil war * Poland charges that many of the rebels are German nationalists, who have crossed the border with help from the German army ** Berlin denies any involvement, but admits that Germans may have crossed into Poland, and moves military units closer to the border to improve security * There are several incidents on the Germany-Poland border in July, including exchanges of artillery fire ** On 27th July elements of the German III Corps move into Poland in response to what they call a "full scale attack" by the Polish 4th Mechanised Division ** By 29th July Germany and Poland are at war, which neither side is ready for * Poland is supported by the three Soviet divisions still stationed in Poland, but still outnumbered ** To the surprise of many, Czechoslovakia enters the war on the side of the Warsaw Pact * By the end of November, the Bundeswehr is in trouble. Soviet Frontal Aviation has left its most modern aircraft in the west, which makes life difficult for the Luftwaffe * The Czech army breaks through the southern flank and heads for Berlin. The Warsaw Pact announces that it intends to occupy and repartition Germany to guard against future aggression * Germany turns to NATO for help, claiming that its actions were justified by Polish military provocation, and that its very existence as a state is threatened ** While NATO debates intervention, the US army crosses the frontier ** Within a week, France, Belgium, Italy and Greece demand that US troops withdraw to their start line. When this does not happen, they withdraw from NATO in protest ** British and Canadian forces cross the frontier. Danish and Dutch troops stay in place, still NATO members but not involved in the war * Soviet troops attack in northern Norway. Paratroopers and marines are landed in NATO rear areas, but ground troops fail to break through to them. ** NATO forces in Norway advance east toward the Soviet naval facilities on the Kola Peninsula. The Soviet paratroopers and marines in Norway are isolated and destroyed * At sea, the Soviet Red Banner Northern Fleet sorties and tries to break through the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom (GIUK) gap into the North Atlantic ** After three weeks, the NATO fleet emerges victorious, after the Soviets suffer a loss of 80% of surface tonnage ** Some commerce raiders make it into the Atlantic, and wreak havoc with NATO convoys * Romanian police shoot and kill a man crossing the Hungary-Romania border ** Hungary suspends diplomatic relations with Romania ** Romania claims the man was a smuggler, bringing arms to anti-government forces ** A Romanian railway station in Cluj is blown up. The Romanians blame Hungarian army spies, Hungary blames Romanian provocateurs * There are mass arrests of Magyars (ethic Hungarians) in Romania, met with armed resistance ** A secessionist Magyar government declares independence from Romania * Romanian troops move to crush the rebellion. Hungary protests, is ignored, and declares war (with allies Bulgaria and the Soviet Union) * Hungarian, Bulgarian and Soviet troops cross the border into Romania. Romania declares war on the three invading nations and asks NATO for assistance * Yugoslavia sends three divisions and five brigades into Romania. They are under Romanian command within two days ** NATO offers full membership to both Romania and Yugoslavia. Both accept ** The Turkish 1st Army launches an offensive against a thin Bulgarian covering force in Thrace on Christmas Eve * In July, a group of Maoist guerillas called Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) make a bid to take control of Peru ** The Peruvian government does not fall, but Sendero Luminoso takes control of about half the country ** Other South American and Central American countries experience varying levels of instability